Buying house and retention needed for garage

adocholiday

Hi all,

I'm in the process of buying a house and the vendor just told us that the garage they built to the rear of the property was built without planning and needs a retention application. It's gone well beyond the 7 year cut-off for demolishment. It's over 40sq m though and there isn't less than 25sq m between it and the boundary so it's certainly not exempt.

Just wondering what the risks are here now? Could the council still make them do additional work to meet building regs etc? We're just really worried about how this might affect the time line of the sale or worse still make the sale fall through.

Calahonda52

Selling in the future is one issue, the other one is that no bank will lend against it unless the issues are resolved.
Retention my be denied.

what does your lawyer say?

adocholiday

Calahonda52 wrote: »

Selling in the future is one issue, the other one is that no bank will lend against it unless the issues are resolved.
Retention my be denied.

what does your lawyer say?

Well if retention is granted wouldn't that resolve the issue for selling in future (i.e. The garage would be planning compliant)?

We haven't spoken to our solicitor yet this just came to light this evening.

TomOnBoard

adocholiday wrote: »

Well if retention is granted wouldn't that resolve the issue for selling in future (i.e. The garage would be planning compliant)?

We haven't spoken to our solicitor yet this just came to light this evening.

If retention is granted, then it resolves the issue. However, its for the seller to arrange. That'll affect closing date if ye are already in a contract. Solicitor will have come across this type of issue previously. Don't sweat it. Your solicitor will deal with it.

adocholiday

TomOnBoard wrote: »

adocholiday wrote: »

Well if retention is granted wouldn't that resolve the issue for selling in future (i.e. The garage would be planning compliant)?

We haven't spoken to our solicitor yet this just came to light this evening.

If retention is granted, then it resolves the issue. However, its for the seller to arrange. That'll affect closing date if ye are already in a contract. Solicitor will have come across this type of issue previously. Don't sweat it. Your solicitor will deal with it.

Yeah we haven't signed contracts yet. We just paid the booking deposit and the surveyor has been out to site. The ball is only rolling on the paperwork now so we're OK on that front. We don't mind waiting the extra time to close it out, just worried about any other related obstacles this might put up to the sale completing.

What would the realistic chances be say of the council making them do remedial works on it? Or even worse making them tear it down?

TomOnBoard

adocholiday wrote: »

Yeah we haven't signed contracts yet. We just paid the booking deposit and the surveyor has been out to site. The ball is only rolling on the paperwork now so we're OK on that front. We don't mind waiting the extra time to close it out, just worried about any other related obstacles this might put up to the sale completing.

What would the realistic chances be say of the council making them do remedial works on it? Or even worse making them tear it down?

The council will either grant or refuse the retention. It's its been properly built, and not out of the ordinary, I don't know what remedial works would arise. If they grant retention, then grand. If they refuse, the next question will be what action the council would take. Is the council already aware of it, and what actions have the council already deemed necessary.

You're over-thinking it for now. Solicitors will need to establish what needs to be done. I'd recommend you just sit tight until you get to speak with solicitor. Good luck.

Lumen

adocholiday wrote: »

It's over 40sq m though and there isn't less than 25sq m between it and the boundary so it's certainly not exempt.

I think you're mixing up your rules there.

The exempt limit is 25sqm for an unattached structure, and 25sqm of open space remaining. The 40sqm limit is for attached extensions.

Not sure what you mean about space between it and the boundary.

So it's basically impossible to build a double detached garage exempt from planning, since you'd typically want it to be at least 40sqm.



Also check the finish, if it's different from the house then that's more likely to be a problem.

Calahonda52

The other possibility is that he means less than 25% garden space left: forget the detail now but someone here will know

OP: the seller will either rectify by applying for retention, which could take 12 weeks to allow for drawing prep/ planning app/objections/ etc.
As noted earlier, there may be other issues with the house

Homer

Also the vendors will likely have to make a substantial contribution to their local authority when getting retention (if they do indeed get retention)
We bought a house approx 9 months ago with a similar issue and the vendors had to pay €6k to fingal co co and there was a list of conditions attached to the granting of the retention application.

listermint

If it's mortgage purchase then the bank won't give the mortgage until that is resolved

Alkers

listermint wrote:

If it's mortgage purchase then the bank won't give the mortgage until that is resolved

Only if they find out. If you don't tell your solictor, the bank won't find out. You would want to be convinced that it's the perfect house though.

Homer

Simona1986 wrote: »

Only if they find out. If you don't tell your solictor, the bank won't find out. You would want to be convinced that it's the perfect house though.

Rubbish! It’s the solicitors job to look at the folio on land registry website and ensure that the property is compliant and of good title. There is no way to get out of it.

adocholiday

Thanks all for the responses. Well there's no way we'd be even considering doing anything underhanded here. We want everything above board.

The house itself is fine otherwise (we are assured by the surveyor at least). The vendor said that when the builder was building the house he suggested adding the garage at the time so they just went ahead. It's built in the exact same style as the house and is the exact same width as the house but is detached. We were actually hoping to extend into it because we don't need the garage but could make 2 extra rooms out of it.

The only thing now is that if a load of conditions are attached to it then we may be prevented from extending it or making changes. Going to arrange to speak to our solicitor ASAP anyway and go from there.

Lumen

Even if the detached garage was planning compliant you wouldn't be able to extend into it without further planning application, so if that's your plan I don't think the current status is particularly relevant except for the purposes of negotiating price and getting through conveyancing.

In any case, planning aside, building regs for habitable space are so far from a garage construction that you may as well knock and rebuild anyway.

adocholiday

Lumen wrote: »

Even if the detached garage was planning compliant you wouldn't be able to extend into it without further planning application, so if that's your plan I don't think the current status is particularly relevant except for the purposes of negotiating price and getting through conveyancing.

In any case, planning aside, building regs for habitable space are so far from a garage construction that you may as well knock and rebuild anyway.

Yeah understood we'd need further planning regardless. When I call it a garage it's more an annex with a plumbed utility room and a separate room with a roller door on it. It is actually built to the same standard as the house (again according to the surveyor), and his opinion was it was perfect to extend into so that's where the idea came from. It was a big selling point of the house to us, so that's why this is important to us.